The University of Michigan Part 6

In modern languages, the task dropped by Professor Fasquelle at his death in 1862 was continued by Edward Payson Evans, '54, until 1870 and then by George S. Morris until his acceptance of the Professorship of Philosophy in 1879. Edwin Lorraine Walter, '68, was then elected to the chair. In 1887 the Department was divided and Calvin Thomas, '74, became Professor of Germanic Languages and Literature, to be succeeded, after his call to Columbia University in 1896, by George A. Hench, Lafayette, '85, who lost his life three years later in an accident in the White Mountains. Max Winkler, Harvard, '89, the present occupant of the chair, eventually succeeded him. After Professor Walter lost his life on the Bourgogne in 1898, the chair of French was filled by Arthur G. Canfield, Williams, '78.

When the new chair in the Science and Art of Teaching was first established in 1879, William H. Payne was appointed as the first Professor. He was an experienced teacher in the secondary schools of the State and contributed much to the eventual success of the new department. After he resigned in 1887 to become Chancellor of the University of Nashville, Burke Aaron Hinsdale, a graduate and for some time President of Hiram College, Ohio, and an intimate a.s.sociate of President Garfield, was elected to succeed him. Under Professor Hinsdale's strong and vigorous guidance, the department rapidly advanced to a recognized place in the curriculum. Though his bearing was somewhat austere and overwhelming, he could unbend, as was proved on one occasion in the Library when his booming voice brought an admonition from an official. Just then an influential member of the Library Committee chanced to appear. He proved a greater disturber of the peace than Professor Hinsdale, who, nudging his companion, slyly inquired, with the suspicion of a grin, "Why don't you tell _him_ to keep quiet?" Professor Hinsdale was distinguished by his prolific and scholarly writings and left a monument in his "History of the University," which will long be recognized as the standard for the period up to 1900. His death occurred in that year, and the chair thus left vacant was occupied by Allen S. Whitney, '85, whose t.i.tle was changed in 1905 to Professor of Education.

After the resignation of Professor Watson in 1879, the chair of Astronomy was occupied by Mark Walrod Harrington, '68, until 1892; later he became President of the University of Washington. He was succeeded by William J. Hussey, '89. Since the death of Professor Olney in 1887, the Department of Mathematics has been under the charge of Wooster W. Beman, '70, a member of the Faculty since 1871, whose name now stands first as to length of service on the academic roster.

Albert Benjamin Prescott, '64_m_, who eventually succeeded Dr. Silas H.

Douglas as Director of the Chemical Laboratory, became a.s.sistant Professor of Chemistry in 1865. He organized the course in Pharmacy three years later, becoming Professor of Organic and Applied Chemistry and of Pharmacy in 1870. In 1876 he became Dean of the new College of Pharmacy and in 1884 Director of the Chemical Laboratory. Upon his death in 1905 he was succeeded as Director of the Chemical Laboratory by Edward DeMille Campbell, '86, who had been Professor of Chemical Engineering and a.n.a.lytical Chemistry since 1902. After the retirement of Professor Williams in 1877, Charles K. Wead, Vermont, '71, became Acting Professor of Physics, to be succeeded in 1885 by Henry Smith Carhart, Wesleyan, '69, who held the chair of Physics and the Directorship of the Physical Laboratory until his retirement in 1905. His successor was John Oren Reed, '85, who became also Dean of the Literary Department in 1907.

Upon Dean Reed's death in 1916 the Professorship of Physics pa.s.sed to Harrison McAllister Randall, '93, who became Director of the Physical Laboratory in 1918.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVATORY The original building at the right]

[Ill.u.s.tration: HILL AUDITORIUM]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CHEMISTRY BUILDING]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE NATURAL SCIENCE BUILDING]

At the end of Professor Winch.e.l.l's first period in the University in '73, the several subjects which comprised his professorship were divided. The chair of Botany pa.s.sed to Eugene Woldemar Hilgard, Ph.D., Heidelberg, '53, who was succeeded two years later by Volney Morgan Spalding, '73, as Instructor in Botany and Zoology, becoming Professor of Botany in 1886. Upon his resignation in 1904 the chair was occupied by Frederick Charles Newcombe, '90. The work in Zoology pa.s.sed to Joseph Beal Steere, '68, who became an a.s.sistant Professor in 1876, after five years of travel in the interests of the University in South America, China, and the East Indies, where he collected some 20,000 specimens for the Museum. He became Professor of Zoology in 1879, and retained the chair until 1894, when he was succeeded by Jacob E. Reighard, '82.

William Henry Pettee, Harvard, '61, a.s.sumed the work in mineralogy in 1875 under the t.i.tle of Professor of Mining Engineering. In addition to his work in his own subject, he served from 1881 to 1904 as editor of the University Calendar and advisory editor of other University publications. Edward Henry Kraus, Syracuse, '96, who occupies the chair of Mineralogy at present, first came to the University in 1904 and succeeded to the chair in 1908. When Professor Winch.e.l.l returned to the University after his term as Chancellor of the University of Syracuse, he became Professor of Geology and held that position until his death in 1891, when he was succeeded by Israel Cook Russell, New York University, '69. Upon Professor Russell's death in 1906, William Herbert Hobbs, Worcester Polytechnic, '83, was called to the chair from the University of Wisconsin.

Though courses in economics were given in the University almost from the first and; in fact, with International Law, formed the special field of work a.s.sumed by Dr. Angell for some years, the Department of Political Economy as such was not organized until after Henry C. Adams, Iowa College, '74, who came to the University as a lecturer in 1881, accepted the chair of Political Economy in 1887. The first step toward a chair in Sociology came with the appointment in 1899 of Charles Horton Cooley, '87, a son of Judge Thomas M. Cooley, of the first Law Faculty, as a.s.sistant Professor of Sociology, from which position he rose to a full professorship in eight years. A separate chair of Political Science was not created until 1910, when Jesse Siddall Reeves, Amherst, '91, came as the head of the new department. The Department of Music had its first beginning with the appointment of Calvin Brainerd Cady, Oberlin, '74, as instructor in 1880. He became Acting Professor of Music in 1885, but resigned three years later when Albert A. Stanley, Leipzig, '75, came as the head of the Department and a few years later Director of the University School of Music, now closely a.s.sociated with the work of the University though not in any way a part of it. After the disappearance from the Faculty roll of the name of the Detroit portrait painter, Alvah Bradish, who apparently gave a few lectures on Fine Arts during the period from 1852 to 1863, no work in fine arts was given until the appointment of Professor Herbert R. Cross, Brown, '00, in 1911. The work in elocution and oratory was definitely established with the appointment in 1889 of Thomas C. Trueblood, M.A., Earlham, '85, who had for some years held a lectureship in the University, as a.s.sistant Professor of Elocution and in 1892 as full Professor of Oratory.

The chair of Semitics and Oriental Languages, held since 1914 by Leroy Waterman, Hillsdale, '98, was first established in 1893 when James A.

Craig, McGill, '80, came as Professor of Oriental Languages, a t.i.tle which was changed to Semitic Languages and Literatures and h.e.l.lenistic Greek the following year.

Following the example of Yale and Cornell, Michigan established a Department of Forestry in 1903, and called Filibert Roth, '90, to fill the chair thus created. For some time courses in forestry had been given in connection with the work in botany, but the growing interest in the preservation and conservation of America's timber resources made more intensive and systematic training seem desirable. A few years later, in 1909, a course in landscape design was established, which shortly became a department under the charge of Professor Aubrey Tealdi, a graduate of the Royal Technical Inst.i.tute of Livorno, Italy.

The history of the development of special courses and degrees in the University, though interesting and suggestive, can only be given here in a brief outline. As Dr. Angell remarked in one of his reports, the governing board has been distinguished for the boldness and originality of its policy, making frequent changes in traditional college usages, some of which were freely criticized at the time by those who afterwards approved and even adopted them. We have seen how the University departed from the dead level of contemporary college practice in establishing Scientific Courses, and the admitting of those who were not seeking a degree as special students. A few years later, in 1855, came the first indication of one of the princ.i.p.al differences between the old University and that of the present time--the system of elective studies.

The concession was a very small one, it must be acknowledged, one-third of the work in the senior year; but it was a break in the dike. This was all that was allowed for fifteen years, or until 1871, when all the studies of the senior year except philosophy became elective.

The establishment of an English course in 1877-78, leading to the degree of Bachelor of Letters, which consisted largely in the study of modern languages and history, and aimed to co-ordinate with similar high school courses, formed another break, which was emphasized by a modification and revision of the other courses and a change from the Latin and Scientific to the Latin course. Almost half the work required for a degree now became elective. This action was far-reaching in its effect; not only was there an immediate increase of almost twenty percent in the number of students, but due to it, curiously enough, can be traced the subsequent rise of a true graduate school. The principle of general election of studies was gradually extended until the required work was decreased to certain introductory courses in Latin, Greek, modern languages, rhetoric, history, mathematics, and sciences, according to the special fields chosen by the student. The special degrees of B.S., Ph.B., and B.L. were abolished in 1900 and all graduates of the Literary Department were granted a degree of A.B. after that time, though the B.S. was later restored. Of late there has been a reaction toward more formal programs of study, with an increased emphasis on certain introductory work which must be observed in planning the course necessary for a degree. But the great lat.i.tude left to the student in the choice of his work still remains.

The growth of the Graduate School should also be noted, for upon this the standing of the University as a center of learning must eventually rest. In spite of Dr. Tappan's efforts to introduce "university"

courses, Michigan was long a college rather than a university, so much so that President Haven discouraged the use of the word "undergraduate"

when "graduate" students were almost non-existent; while the opportunities offered them, except possibly in astronomy and chemistry, where the facilities were unusual for that period, were only those of a high grade college curriculum. But the leaven was working, in two particulars especially; the seminar method of teaching and the development of the elective system. The first seminar was held by Professor Charles Kendall Adams in 1871 in some of his courses in history. He was followed a little later by Professor Moses Coit Tyler in English Literature, and in time by most of the other departments. This, with the corresponding laboratory methods in the teaching of the sciences, had a profound influence on the growth of scholarly ideals in the University. Michigan was in all probability the first American inst.i.tution to naturalize these products of Continental universities.

The broadening of the course in 1877-78, with its great increase in electives, enabled the members of the Faculty to increase the scope of their work and to expand their courses. As an immediate answer there came an ever increasing demand for true graduate work, not only from graduates of the University, but from those of other inst.i.tutions as well. This movement grew so rapidly that the number of advanced students enrolled increased from four in 1870 to 56 in 1892, when a Graduate School was formally organized in connection with the Literary Department. This was expanded some twenty-five years later into an entirely separate Department, or School, following the revised nomenclature of 1910, of which Professor Karl Eugen Guthe, Marburg, Ph.D., '89, of the Department of Physics, became the first Dean. Upon his death in the summer of 1915 he was succeeded by Professor Alfred H.

Lloyd, Harvard, '86, of the Department of Philosophy.

Thus graduate work in the University came into its own. At last the ideals of President Tappan, who admitted the first graduate student in 1856, were in some measure at least realized; though the real results of his labors did not show for many years after he left.

Throughout all the early period the general att.i.tude towards advanced work was decidedly haphazard and casual; the degree of Doctor of Philosophy was not given until 1876, when Dr. Victor C. Vaughan, the present Dean of the Medical School, was one of the first recipients; while the Ph.D. as well as the M.D. were sometimes given as honorary degrees. This att.i.tude toward graduate study, however, was by no means confined to Michigan, for the systematic regulation of advanced courses has been comparatively a recent development in all American universities.

The first organization of the School under a Graduate Council within the Literary Department, was therefore a great step in advance, however anomalous its position,--a graduate school practically controlled by an undergraduate faculty,--though there were, it is true, certain representatives of the professional departments on the Council.

Nevertheless the work grew rapidly after this time. Not only was there a steadily increasing enrolment, but there was a distinct increase in the number of advanced courses, as well as in the time given by teachers to graduate instruction and to research work, which greatly strengthened the prestige of the University as a center of higher education.

The final establishment of the School as a separate division of the University naturally gave a decided impetus to this development. A suite of offices was set apart for the administrative force; special encouragement was given to the publication of the results of their work by members of the Faculty, particularly through such agencies as the University Humanistic Series, and similar series in other fields, while fifteen University fellowships were also established, as well as the State College Fellowships mentioned above. In addition a number of fellowships have been privately established by individuals and corporations, ranging from the cla.s.sics to paper-making. During the last few years there have been in all between thirty-five and forty-five fellowships ordinarily available. The enrolment in the School reached 570 in 1916. There was naturally a falling off during the war, though by the year 1919-20 the enrolment had once more reached 509. Of this number 227 were registered in the summer session, 173 were women and 195 were graduates of other inst.i.tutions than Michigan.

The history of the University Library has been closely a.s.sociated, as is only natural, with the growth of the Literary College, and it is proper to include a word about the Library in this place. The appointment of the first Librarian in 1837 did not make a library, and for many years the fine but small collection of books gathered in Europe by Professor Gray was housed in different places about the Campus and was used only as a circulating library--open for one hour each week for the use of the professors and students. However a note in the library regulations to the effect that: "The present instructors are of opinion that there are very few of the books in the library which would be useful to students,"

seems to limit even this function of the little collection. All this was changed in 1856 when the whole North Wing was set apart as a Museum and Library. Here for the first time, the books were properly shelved and arrangements made for their daily use in an adequate reading-room under the charge of Dr. Tappan's son, John L. Tappan, who took charge as the first real Librarian. He arranged the books scientifically and began the first card catalogue.

Almost at once the Library sprang into a new place in University life.

Not only did President Tappan make the Library one of his first interests, but the Regents came to realize the desirability of regular support. This inaugurated a period of ever-increasing growth, which has placed the Library well to the front among American college libraries.

Progress at first was rather slow, only about 800 volumes were added each year up to 1877, when the Librarian reported that there were almost 24,000 volumes in the collection. Not very large even then; but the rate increased from that time, rapidly, and at the present time the Library numbers some 430,000 volumes including the departmental collections.

In 1877 the Legislature was brought to see the imperative need of an adequate library and made a special appropriation of $5,000, which was renewed every two years, and even gradually increased, until in 1891 the amount appropriated was $15,000, with a grand total over a period of fifteen years of $79,000. These biennial appropriations ended in 1893 with the increase of the mill-tax from one-twentieth to one-sixth of a mill. This enabled the Regents to double the income of the Library, making it $15,000 annually. The income increased gradually until the library budget of 1920 was over $150,000, of which $50,000 represents the approximate cost of books; the balance being spent for the salaries of the large staff which is necessitated by a library of this size.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE NEW LIBRARY]

Upon the completion of the first Law Building in 1863 the Library was given new and better quarters where it remained until the old Library was completed in 1883. This was at the time considered the last word in a college library and was dedicated with special exercises at which an address was given by Dr. Justin Winsor, Librarian of Harvard University.

For thirty-five years this building, situated at the center of the Campus, with its picturesque twin towers rising above the ivy-covered apse, served the University well. Here was not only the center of academic life, but from one of the towers the Campus clock chimed the hours and quarters for the convenience of the students. In the end, however, the old building proved inadequate and unsafe for the valuable collections it housed, in spite of an increase in stack capacity in 1899. The building was therefore finally removed to make way for the new Library, completed in 1919, which, through its perfect adaptation to the purposes for which it is designed, is considered the most conveniently appointed and successful college library in the country. The building will accommodate over one million volumes and there are definite plans for future extension which will house over three-quarters of a million in addition. The stack wing of the old Library was incorporated in the building, permitting the gradual erection of the new structure in such a manner that the use of the books was not interfered with at any time.

The new Library was formally opened on January 7, 1920, with an address by Mr. R.R. Bowker, the editor of _The Library Journal_, as the princ.i.p.al feature of the programme. The building cost, completed and furnished, $615,000, of which amount the sum of $550,000 was especially appropriated by the State Legislature.

After the resignation of the first Librarian, the Rev. Henry Colclazer, in 1845, the charge of the Library was pa.s.sed around from one member of the Faculty to another until the appointment of John L. Tappan in 1856, nominally the eighth, though in reality the first Librarian. He was followed by Datus Chase Brooks, who held the position one year, when the Rev. Andrew Ten Brook, who had once before held the t.i.tle during the year 1850-51, returned to the University as Librarian in 1864. Not only were the affairs of the Library well cared for during his administration, but he also found time to write his "History of State Universities," which gives the only adequate picture we have of the beginnings of the University, by one who shared their trials and triumphs. Upon his resignation in 1877 Raymond Cazallis Davis, '55-'57, A.M. (hon.) '81, succeeded him, contributing greatly during the twenty-eight years of his administration towards the establishment of the Library on its present effective basis. In this effort he was supported by the advice and co-operation of Professor Isaac N. Demmon, who was for thirty-seven years a member of the Library Committee.

Theodore Wesley Koch, Harvard, '93, became Librarian in 1905, coming from the Library of Congress in Washington. It was his main effort to popularize the use of the Library among the students and Faculties, through making the reading-rooms more attractive and the books more accessible. The Library of Congress was again called upon for his successor after he resigned in 1915, when the present Librarian, William Warner Bishop, '92, came in time to give his experience and administrative ability to the planning and construction of the new Library Building. To him in no small measure is due its acknowledged success as a working library which has won the praise of all practical librarians throughout the country.

CHAPTER VII

THE PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES

The first steps toward the establishment of a Faculty of Medicine and Surgery were taken in 1847. The Medical Building was not completed, however, until two years later, and the formal opening of the new Department did not take place until October 1, 1850. On this occasion Abram Sager, the first President, or Dean of the Faculty, as we should now call him, delivered an address to ninety matriculates, at a time when there were only sixty-four students all told in the Literary Department. The period was propitious for the installation of a strong school, for although there were a few struggling medical inst.i.tutions in the West, the vigorous growth of the new Department showed how inadequately this part of the country was served in medical education.

The entrance requirements were simple; a fair high school education, with Latin and Greek sufficient for the understanding of medical terms.

For graduation, at least three years' study with a reputable physician was required; but this might include the two six-month courses of lectures which comprised the work of the Department. Even this very slender medical preparation was not required of college graduates, or of students who had already practised medicine four years, for whom one course was deemed sufficient. A thesis was also necessary for graduation, and tradition has it that in a few cases during the earlier days of the Department, they were actually written and delivered in Latin. Special attention was given to laboratory work in chemistry and anatomy, though for the most part the training was given through lectures and quizzes. The conservatism of the Literary Department in educational methods here also found its parallel, even in the comparatively new sciences.

The introduction of clinical methods came slowly, though the growing city of Ann Arbor furnished many opportunities for actual diagnosis and treatment. The lack of practical facilities for study was early recognized, however, and within a few years some of the members of the Medical Faculty established a school for clinical instruction in Detroit, which eventually led to the first effort for the removal of the school mentioned in the last chapter. In spite of this difficulty the Department grew so rapidly that within ten years it had an enrolment of 242 matriculates and 43 graduates; more students than were enrolled at Yale, Harvard, or Virginia, the leading medical schools of that day. The growth came so rapidly, in fact, that it proved embarra.s.sing and the Regents experienced great difficulty in finding accommodations for the students. In 1864 an addition was made to the original Medical Building which more than doubled its capacity and in 1868 one of the professors'

houses on the north side of the Campus was fitted up as the first University Hospital. By 1874 Latin and Greek had been dropped from the requirements for admission; a possible backward step which was more than counterbalanced three years later by the extension of the annual course of lectures to nine months. Finally in 1880 an extra year was added to the course.

The long roster of the Medical Faculty has included many distinguished names, of which but a few can be mentioned, and none with the detail their services to their profession and to science deserve. The first Faculty consisted of the two recruits from the Literary Department, Dr.

Sager, who became Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children, and Dr. Douglas, who a.s.sumed the chair of Chemistry, Pharmacy, and Medical Jurisprudence in the new school; as well as four other members, Moses Gunn, who was a graduate of Geneva Medical College, 1846, Professor of Anatomy and Surgery; Samuel Denton, Castleton Medical College (Vermont), '25, a former Regent, who became Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine and Pathology; J. Adams Allen, Middlebury, '45, Professor of Therapeutics, Materia Medica, and Physiology; and R.C. Kedzie, '51_m_, demonstrator of anatomy, who later was for nearly forty years Professor of Chemistry at the Michigan Agricultural College.

Dr. Sager, the first Dean of the Department, was one of its most learned and versatile members; so thoroughly possessed of the scientific spirit that his abilities were not always appreciated by his students, or, it must be confessed, by his colleagues. Of his ability as a pract.i.tioner "a few of the older residents of Ann Arbor speak reverently and lovingly." Dr. Gunn, who had charge of the Anatomical Laboratory, the first laboratory to be established in the University, deserves, in the opinion of Dr. Vaughan, the present Dean of the School, to be called the founder of the Department. This honor, however, might properly be divided with Dr. Zina Pitcher of Detroit, who, as a member of the first Board of Regents, was responsible for the early introduction of the teaching of medicine in the University. But Dr. Gunn was on the ground as early as 1849, and from the first he labored earnestly and effectively in the organization of the new Department, which was beset by many difficulties, particularly in his own field, where the problem of finding adequate material for the study of anatomy was almost insuperable for many years. Many are the hints given in the reminiscences of the older men of the practical ways this difficulty was met, but for the most part the matter is shrouded in a discreet silence.

Dr. Gunn was of a commanding character and presence and his "trained hand dared to do many operations, the landmarks of which were not then described in the works on surgery." He soon gave up his work in Anatomy and was succeeded in 1854 by Dr. Corydon La Ford, Geneva, '42, a sensitive and earnest teacher, who had a way of "making dry bones and anatomical tissues of absorbing interest." It is said of him that in his day he probably taught more students than any other teacher of anatomy.

Occupying hardly a lesser place than Dr. Ford in the memories of the older medical graduates was his factotum, Gregor Nagele, better known as "Doc" Nagele. As an immigrant just landed, he helped in the construction of the old Medical Building and remained to become for years the presiding genius of the Department, and, through his long a.s.sociation with Dr. Ford, an unofficial demonstrator of anatomy to the "boys."

Dr. Denton, another member of that first Faculty, was long remembered by his students because of his high hat and his buck-board wagon, as well as by his belief in the medical efficiency of alcohol; in which he came into violent conflict with one of his confreres and eventual successor in the Professorship of Pathology and Theory and Practice. This was Dr.

A.B. Palmer, a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1839, who in 1854 succeeded Dr. Allen, the first of the original Faculty to go. Dr. Palmer was a conspicuous personage in Ann Arbor for many years, energetic in public welfare and a lover not only of his profession but of his professorship and its duties. One of his students remarks: "He would have been willing to get up in the night and lecture if asked, so enthusiastic was he in his efforts to help the student." He was the first member of the Medical Faculty to apply for leave of absence that he might study abroad. That was in 1858.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE ENGINEERING BUILDING]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE MEDICAL BUILDING]

Other appointments of particular importance in the earlier years of the Medical Department were those of Samuel G. Armor, Missouri Medical College, '44, who became Professor of the Inst.i.tutes of Medicine and Materia Medica in 1861, and of Albert Benjamin Prescott, '64_m_, who entered the same year upon his long term of distinguished service in the Chemical Laboratory and later the Department of Pharmacy, loved and honored by many generations of students. Changes in the personnel of the Faculty were frequent, however, and few men remained long enough to identify their lives wholly with that of the University. When Dr. Sager retired as Emeritus Professor and Dean in 1874, Dr. Edward S. Dunster, New York College of Medicine and Surgery, '59, was appointed to his chair, and held it until his death in 1888. Dr. Palmer succeeded Dr.

Sager as Dean, but in 1887, the position pa.s.sed to Dr. Ford, and then, in 1891, to Dr. Victor C. Vaughan, Mt. Pleasant (Mo.) College, '72; M.D.

(Michigan), '78, the first graduate of the School to become its Dean. He has been a member of the Faculty since 1879, serving as Professor of Physiology and Pathological Chemistry and a.s.sistant Professor of Therapeutics and Materia Medica.